Act 19: Rise of the Dead
by The Admiral
Summary: Frankenstien's Megadeuce?!? Will that Beck ever give up?
1. Default Chapter

For the last time (not really), I do not own Big O or any of its characters. I am making no $$$ off this whatsoever. It is futile to sue me. So there.  
  
  
  
Act 19: Rise of the Dead  
  
  
  
It was a quiet night in the heart of Paradigm. A light rain fell, just enough to cool the street but not enough to be frigid. Most of the denziens were in their homes, sleeping or trying to sleep. A sliver of a crescent of moon bathed the area in a pale light, lending an air of romance to the scene. Dorothy sat on the rail contemplating life, in particular, her life over the last week.  
  
She was puzzled. Her programming had been experiencing odd behavior over the last few days, so she had run an intense diagnostic. It had revealed a very curious result. Her primary systems, those that ran her most basic functions, were functioning normally, as if none of the recent events had affected her in the least. The more complex systems, those that governed her behavior, the timbre of her voice, and what little body language she could manage, were in a state of cybernetic rebellion. Her memory banks, for instance, would not acknowledge the fact that Roger was dead. They would always refer to him as 'missing' or 'away,' even when she purposefully corrected them. Her grammar subroutines were also corrupted; whenever she reffered to Roger in her speech, it always came out as 'he does' or 'he likes,' instead of 'he did' and 'he liked.' It was a most bizzare phenomenon, something she had never experienced before. It was unsettling that her circuitry would not let Roger go.  
  
After dinner, she had mentioned her findings to Norman.  
  
"Dorothy, humans lose someone they had care about, they often refuse to accept that loss, and sometimes go for the rest of their life convinced the lost companion was still alive, or awaiting discovery."  
  
"Norman, I am an android. I am exempt from the faults of humans." She also had noticed that she was having to remind both him and herself of that fact more and more recently.  
  
Norman smiled. "Perhaps, Miss Dorothy, you are more human than you realize."  
  
That remark made little sense to her, so she dissmissed it as a quirk of being human. She had done that so often with Roger, too...  
  
Now she was coming back to what Norman had said. If androids were capable of feeling, or of acting human, then what she had felt before Big O had vanished might not have been another programming error...could what she had felt when Roger was near...actually...be...  
  
Her train of thought derailed at the first thunderous footstep. Dorothy jerked her head up and caught a glimps of something moving between skyscrapers. Could it be...  
  
Whatever it was, it was moving away from the mansion, down the street on the far side of a line of buildings. She would not lose sight of it.  
  
Dorothy ran along the railing, and when it stopped she leaped high into the air. Instantly beating every human record for the long jump, she landed on the roof of the next building and continued running. The robot she was trailing had a lead, but at her present speed she could keep up. Sprinting across each rooftop and hurling herself across the broad gaps between, she followed it to a single building.  
  
When Dorothy finally jumped to a building that afforded a good view of the machine, something inside her cried out. It was not Big O.  
  
It was not even a true Megadeuce. Pieces of the many robots that had risen throughout the city had been sloppliy gathered together to form one functional unit. It was a hideous patchwork quilt of armor, no more than four or five bits from the same Megadeuce. One arm was short, and terminated in a huge gatling gun, the other stretched nearly to the ground and had three joints. It was a nightmare Megadeuce.  
  
The hideous construction had stopped next to the Prime Bank, the leading institution in Paradigm. Using the triple-jointed arm, it smashed through the wall and pulled the safe out. Not bothering to crack it open, the robot turned and stomped back down the street with its prize. Dorothy watched it go. 


	2. Part Two

For the last time (not really), I do not own Big O or any of its characters. I am making no $$$ off this whatsoever. It is futile to sue me. So there.  
  
  
  
"Frankenstien's Megadeuce, eh?" Angel was reading about the incedent in the next day's paper. Eight days after his demise and the newspaper was still delivering to Roger Smith's address. "Says the thing made off with the safe--literally, it pulled it out of the building and walked away. $15,000,000 lost. Hmph." She turned to the comics.  
  
Dorothy only glanced at Angel as she stood at the window. Let it be her secret that she was witness to the act. Plenty of other people were obvioulsy watching.  
  
"Dorothy, it appears we are in need of some basic items for tonight's dinner. Would you care to come with me to the store?" Norman called from near the elevator.  
  
"Yes, Norman. I think I shall join you."  
  
  
On their way back, the pair passed the Paradigm Stock exchange, one of the key elements in the city's economy. Dozens of ambitious young men with slicked back hair moved in and out of the towereing building. Dorothy found that an abnormal number of them bore strong resembelance to Roger. Twice she nearly called his name, only to stop just before the sound came as the object of her anguish turned and showed his face to be that of another. She was very disturbed by her own behavior.  
  
They had gone about a block when the ground beneath them trembled. Turning, they say the patchwork Megadeuce emerging from the ground not more than a block from the stock exchange, which it headed straight for. Dorothy ran after the towering robot, and Norman after her.  
  
They caught up with it just as the machine reached its destination. The triple-jointed arm once again reached down and smashed open the building's front. This time, there was no safe to grab. The hellish Megadeuce lowered near to the ground, and a hatch opened. Several men climbed out, including-  
  
"Beck! I thought he was in jail!" Dorothy knew that face anywhere.  
  
"He must have escaped during that disaster a month ago. It would appear he is up to his old tricks again." Norman looked at his wristwatch, a duplicate of Roger's. "Miss Angel, can you read me?"  
  
Angel's face appeared on the watch a few moments later. "I always wondered how he called the thing in...what is it, Norman?"  
  
The patch-eyed man looked back as Beck's men threw bags of money, property deeds, and other valuables into the chest cavity of their robot. "I believe we have what is known as a 'situation.' We are near the Stock Exchange. I suggest you hurry."  
  
"On it!"  
  
A few minutes later, just as the monstrosity rose from its crouch, Big Duo appeared in the sky. Angel came in shooting, a barrage of missiles soaring ahead of her to pound into Beck's machine. He responded with a burst of fire from the gun on the right arm, which struck the jets on Big Duo's left arm, causing them to burn out. The Megadeuce, now horribly off-balance, came jerkily to the ground and landed on its knees. Angel looked up and fired into the other robot's face with the eye lasers, but the thing responded only by reaching out with the triple-jointed arm and slammed Big Duo's head into the ground. Angel turned her right arm, and ignited the jets right in her enemy's chest.  
  
The blast of the exhaust drove the Megadeuce back a pace, and allowed Angel to come to her feet. She started one of the hands spinning, turning it into a lethal saw, and with this she advanced. Beck laughed in his cockpit, and fired two missiles concealed in his shoulders. Big Duo landed on it's back, and Beck advanced. Placing one foot firmly on the chest of the fallen robot, he brought the other arm up to drive into the control cockpit.  
  
Then the pavement beneath his other foot shattered, and drove upward, a huge fist throwing the Nightmare Megadeuce onto its back as well. A huge cloud of smoke rose from both the road shattering and the robot falling. A massive, black figure could be discerned rearing up in it, like a phantom from beyond the grave.  
  
Dorothy nearly screamed with joy.  
  
It was Big O!! 


	3. Part Three

For the last time (not really), I do not own Big O or any of its characters. I am making no $$$ off this whatsoever. It is futile to sue me. So there.  
  
{Author's note: start playing the triumphant battle music here, from the end of R*D :) }  
  
  
  
The black Megadeuce looked as if it had been through hell. One eye lens was cracked again, and a large chunk was missing from the orange helm. The left piston was at an angle, and the armor on that arm was buckled and dented. The covers for several of the missile racks had been torn away, as well as one of the racks. The right shoulder plating was gone, and the entire skin was scratched like a giant Pero had used it as a toy. To Dorothy, it was the greatest sight in the world.  
  
"Where the heck did he come from?!? I thought old Crow Boy had been wasted!" Beck panicked inside at his controls.  
  
"Well then, you thought wrong." Roger's voice came, clear as ever, across the radio. Angel was still slightly in shock.  
  
Big O advanced on Beck's robot, which was trying to stand. Roger delivered a hammering blow with his right arm, followed by one from the left. Just as the Nightmare got to its feet, he brought a fist up in an uppercut, throwing Beck down again. This time, Big O brought the right arm down on the other robot's head and fired off its pile-driver. The explosion threw cars hundreds of feet, finished the patchwork Megadeuce, but did not halt Dorothy, who was running full-bore for the resurrected Megadeuce.  
  
Big O reached down with both hands and tore the chest panel off, revealing Beck and his croneys just as the Military Police arrived on the scene. Roger spotted them, and also saw Dorothy, running towards him with Norman not far behind. He smiled, and placed his right palm on the ground long enough for them to climb aboard. After they had entered the hatch, he turned and looked at Big Duo.  
  
"Surprised to see me?"  
  
"I--but--you were--weren't you??" was the best Angel could manage.  
  
"I thought so." Big O threw her a salute, just as Big Duo had done when Angel had first shown up piloting it, and descened into the tunnels.  
  
The hatch into the cockpit opened, and Dorothy threw her arms around Roger, who was somewhat amazed and bewildered at the greeting. Norman came up behind her. After a moment, she backed up and looked him straight in the eye.  
  
"Don't you ever do that to me again, you louse!!" the supposedly emotionless android scolded Roger. He laughed and embraced her again, beaming at Norman.  
  
  
"When that rubble fell on me, it pushed Big O through the ground and into an even deeper level of the Catacombs. It took me this long just to find a route back to the surface and get my bearings. I happened to notice you were in trouble, Angel, so I decided to break throuh right there."  
  
"Well, your timing couldn't have been better. I have to congradulate you on this one, Roger. Not only did you make a grand entrance and save the day, it also looks like you got the girl."  
  
"Whu?? Oh." He turned and smiled at Dorothy on the couch beside him. She awkwardly tried to copy him, but emotion was so new to her circuits that it didn't quite come out right. Instead, she put her arm around him. Roger flinched.  
  
"Oh. You're hurt." Dorothy was obviously concerned, but her voice was the same steady monotone as always.  
  
"It's just a scratch," Roger said, but she put a finger to his lips.  
  
"We'll get Norman to take a look a that soon."  
  
"So, Roger, what do you plan to do now?" queried Angel.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
The blonde woman shook her head. "You *are* going to keep playing innocent until it kills you. First off, you tried to kill Alex Rosewater. That won't do a whole lot for your reputation. There's also the fact of any successive Red Destinies. Dorothy and I ran into one in the catacombs just the other day." Roger raised an eyebrow, sure there was a story behind it, but let Angel continue. "Third, the whole city knows your secret now. I can bet the Military Police will be showing up any day now to confiscate what's left of your Megadeuce."  
  
Roger grimaced. "So what do you suggest we do? Go down into the Catacombs with Swartzvald? I don't thinke he'd take well to new neighbors."  
  
Angel grinned. "You could always flee the city."  
  
Roger was taken aback. "What do you mean? Where would we go? Paradigm is all that was left after the Event!" Then a thread of insight struck him. "I once asked you if you were born in this city, Angel. You never really answered me."  
  
Angel's grin widened. "We have some talking to do, Mr. Negotiator."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Be warned, it gets weirder from here on out! Please review! 


End file.
